Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County

Biography The writer of the world’s most enduring children’s classic did not come from wealth or outstanding intellect; he began his life in Florida, Missouri. Samuel Clemens’ father, educated in law, modeled the motivation that often defines the American dream; with determination and hard work, success can be achieved (Erskine). Unfortunately, Clemens’ father was never able to achieve his dreams, and he died shortly after moving his family to the banks of the Mississippi River (Erskine). Jane Clemens, his mother, became the central influence of his life, and would later influence his choice of a wife (Erskine). Shortly after moving to the Mississippi, Clemens was apprenticed to a local printer and his newspaper career began. He wrote several short stories during the early 1850s and received experience in the literary field. In 1857, his newspaper career was interrupted when he learned how to be a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. During his travels on the river, a crewmember shouted “mark twain,” which indicated that the boat was approaching water with a depth of twelve feet. This became the pen name that Clemens used to publish all of his notable work,

According to a criticism on the short story in the second volume of Short Stories for Students, writers of local color attempt to exaggerate cultural differences (Schmidt 27). The genre of writing generally focuses on unsophisticated characters in a specific part of America (Schmidt 27). In Twain’s short story, the narrator travels from eastern American to a western mining town in search of Leonidas W. Smiley. When he is trying to obtain information about the man he is searching for, he encounters Simon Wheeler, the stereotypical western frontiersman who rambles on about a man named Jim Smiley that had a pet frog who could jump higher than any of the other member of his